This made me think of a video from almost two years ago. At Emerson Global Users Exchange in 2010, I talked to Mike Boudreaux about the whole safety lifecycle, and he brought up the point of safety metrics. Companies need to establish appropriate programs to cover both personal and process safety. The fact that workers are careful about PPE and lock-out/tag-out procedures is important, but that doesn’t help you if an emergency shut-down valve is stuck open and would not be able to close if the system called on it.

Obviously both sides of the coin are critical. The temptation is probably greater for companies to spend more time on the personnel side since it’s easier, generally less expensive, and employees can see the effects more immediately. Companies can also convince themselves that they are trying to protect their people, at least until something blows up.